a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sweet jellied paste or what is called Yokan in Japanese, method of manufacturing the same, and a cake using such paste.
b) Prior Art
Sweet jellied bean paste (or a bar of sweet jelly) is, as is widely recognized, manufactured by the steps of adding sugar to bean jam, boiling it down to certain consistency, adding agar thereto and then kneading the same into a certain solid state. Further, other various kinds of pastries are known in which some accessory materials such as Japanese chestnut are added as a raw material to the above sweet jellied bean paste, and powdered tea and/or powdered tangle weed (so called Kombu) are sometimes added thereto in order to improve the flavor thereof. Syrup of fig, persimmon or apple are sometimes added thereto.
In the meantime, conventional sweet jellied bean pastes would use a large amount of sugar. For example, one example of materials for conventional sweet jellied pastes would be 7 g agar, 300 cc water, 300 g granulated sugar, 600 g Ogura-an (very sweet Japanese adzuki bean paste) and 50 g glutinous starch syrup. To prevent life custom diseases (e.g., diabetes), however, ingesting such a large amount of sweets should be avoided.
Accordingly, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a novel sweet jellied paste which is produced without using sugar.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a sweet jellied paste without using sugar.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cake using such sweet jellied paste produced without using sugar.
To attain the above objects, there is provided a sweet jellied paste which is produced by the steps of: preparing immersion water, and then restoring dried fruits by immersing the same in the water; adding either the restored fruits or strained restored fruits to agar liquor together with the immersion water so that they are mixed; and kneading the same to a final product.
Accordingly, due to the sweetness obtained from the restored fruits and the immersion water, there can be provided a sweet jellied paste which is sweet enough despite using no sugar. Further, if the dried fruits are those which have medicinal properties, there can be provided a sweet jellied paste which is sweet enough despite using no sugar, having medicinal properties or healing powers.
From another embodiment of the invention, there can be provided a method for producing a sweet jellied paste, which comprises the steps of: preparing immersion water, and then restoring dried fruits by immersing the same in the water; adding either the restored fruits or strained restored fruits to agar liquor together with the water so that they are mixed; thermally kneading the same; further adding dried fruits and agar liquor thereto and mixing the same; further thermally kneading the same, and cooling it to a final product.
Accordingly, there can be provided a method for producing a sweet jellied paste which is sweet enough despite using no sugar. If the dried fruits are those which have medicinal properties, there can be provided a method for producing a sweet jellied paste which is sweet enough despite using no sugar, having medicinal properties or healing powers.